NAATA NUNGURRAYI

Painted at Kintore in February 2005
Papunya Tula Artists, Alice Springs

22nd Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Darwin, Northern Territory, 2005

The painting is in very good condition.
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Cf. For related paintings depicting the site of Marrapinti see Untitled, 1999, Perkins, H. and H. Fink (eds), Papunya Tula: Genesis and Genius, Art Gallery of New South Wales in association with Papunya Tula Artists, Sydney, 2000, p145, illus.; and Rockhole and Soakage Water Site of Marrapinti, 2005, in Pintupi, Hamiltons, London 2006 (exhibition catalogue), catalogue number 13, illus

A characteristically bold composition by Naata based on designs related to the epic journeys of ancestral women across the vast Western Desert. Although the focus of the painting is one particular site, the work suggests events that take place at other points on the women's travels. The site depicted is the soakages at Unkunya, west of the Pollock Hills in Western Australia, in the area of the artist's birthplace. The soakages, represented by the large roundels, are associated with the Two Snakes Dreaming that came from the east. The waterholes were formed by the snakes where they went underground. A large group of ancestral women travelled through Unkunya on their way to Marrapinti in the west where they made nose-bones worn by both men and women in ceremonies. The women (represented by the U-shapes) later travelled east through Ngaminya and Wirrulnga collecting the kampurarrpa or desert raisins

This painting was completed in February 2005 and was exhibited in the 22nd Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award the same year.

A percentage of the proceeds from this sale will be used to benefit the artist directly. In consultation with the artist and her family it was also decided that the remainder be used to assist Papunya Tula Artists Pty Ltd in its ongoing support of a number of community projects and services in the Western Desert. These include a donation to the primary schools at Kintore and Kiwirrkura communities to assist in the purchase of much needed educational resources such as books and computers. It will also benefit the Ngintaka Women's Council aged care facility at Kintore responsible for delivering health programmes to nursing mothers and meals on wheels to the elderly. The womens centre at Kiwirrkura will also be assisted through the sale.

This painting is sold with an accompanying Papunya Tula Artists certificate.